BY REV. JOHN MACDONALD, CALCUTTA.
VI.
(Continued from p. 189.)
‘Tis God that works “to will”; ’tis God that works “to do”;
His is the power by which we act; His be the glory too.
HAPPY, infinitely happy, my dear reader, shall you be, if you sincerely thus come to Jesus, loving Him, and putting your trust in Him, on the authority of His own Word. To do this is faith; and to have true faith is to be an heir of everlasting glory. But take heed to your faith, what it is. Does it rest purely and entirely on Jesus? I recollect once having asked a pious young friend, “Where lies the difference between the faith of the mere professing Christian and of the sincere believer?” He was silent for some time, but I shall never forget the beaming of countenance and energy of expression with which he at length replied, “Oh, it is the clinging, the clinging, it is the clinging to Jesus!”
Yes, the first exercise of faith is indeed like the clinging of a drowning man to his deliverer. Happy should I be if by any effort of mine I could produce such a faith in you—but I cannot; neither can you, through your sinfulness, produce it in yourself. Let me, however, impress upon you one or two important considerations, which, if duly attended to, may, under the blessing of God, be helpful in leading you to the true faith of the Gospel. And,
I. Labour to be convinced, that is, to feel through your whole soul, that, as a sinner, you are in an utterly helpless condition. You are “dead in trespasses and in sins” (Eph. ii.)—lying dead to God in the love of sin, the practice of sin, and under the curse of sin, unable to think one really good thought, were it to save you from eternal misery. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. xi.); therefore, everything you do is displeasing to God, whilst you are without Christ. Your “prayer is an abomination unto Him,” your Bible reading is a mockery, your thoughts a stream of iniquity, your actions, the very best righteousness of them, but “filthy rags”—nay, the very “ploughing of the wicked is sin” (Prov. xxi.).
II. Be convinced that salvation is altogether of God. “No man,” saith Jesus, “can come to Me, except the Father draw him” (John vi.). You must come, and yet you cannot come, except divine grace draw you.” “By grace ye are saved through faith”; true, but mark what follows—”And that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Eph. ii.). By believing only can we be saved, and yet the power of believing must come from God, as well as that which we believe. “Without Me,” saith our blessed Redeemer, “ye can do nothing,” neither repent, believe, nor obey. “Except a man be born again (of the Spirit), he cannot see the Kingdom of God”; and surely an infant imparts not life to itself.
III. But also be assured, that you can only expect to be saved in the diligent and persevering use of the appointed means. The farmer receives his produce from God, but it is through his own ploughing and sowing and harrowing, that the blessing is communicated. Faith is indeed the gift of God; yet it comes “by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. x.). The “Father draws,” by His Spirit working in you; the Spirit works in you by the use of means, and those means are employed by yourself; to use them is therefore your duty. The earnest, humble, and persevering use of divinely appointed means is included in what our Saviour calls “striving to enter in at the strait gate,” which is Himself.
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“Search the Scriptures,” for they alone testify of Christ. Search them as a direct message from the Most High God to yourself, search them as a perishing sinner for a way of escape, search them with constant and persevering prayer for the light and teaching of the promised Spirit, search them for Christ; and oh! be not satisfied until you find Him there, search them, determined to abide by whatever they command you, search them as ever within a hairbreadth of eternity.
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“Pray without ceasing,” because your need of mercy can never for a moment cease. Pray as a sinful, helpless, perishing creature, confessing all your guilt, and even the smallest sin. Pray to a holy, just, true, and heart-searching God, trusting only in Christ, for through Christ alone God is merciful. Pray to Him the precious promises of His Word, for “in Christ every one of them is yea and amen” (II. Cor. i. 20). Pray to be taught to pray, even for the Spirit described in Rom. viii. 26, and promised in Zech. xii. 10. Pray often at set times. Let your mind be always in a state of prayer, and do nothing over which you cannot pray.
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“Depart from evil, and do good.” Depart from everything in the least degree sinful, shun everything having the least appearance of evil, everything that may lead you into further sin, that may fret your temper, or rouse your appetites and passions, everything that tends to excite one unholy thought in your breast. Seek to glorify God, to do His will, to advance His cause, to the utmost of your power, by re proving sin, by instructing others, by a good example, and by giving liberally to the Lord’s work out of that which you have received from Him. Honour God by a faithful attendance on the Word preached, and all the institutions of the gospel of peace, seeking His blessing upon them. Seek out God’s own people, and be much in their company. They are the nobles of Israel, the princes of the land. And do you, like Jesus, ever have your friends in the family of the pious Lazarus and his pious sisters.
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But, lastly, remember that these are only means, and it is Christ alone, and salvation through Him, that you are to seek in and by them, as the great end. It is on this very point that hundreds around you ruin themselves. For to do all these things in order to be accepted by God, is to be a presumptuous Pharisee—to do them in order to be reckoned a Christian by men is to be a detestable hypocrite—to do them in order to think yourself good is to be a self-deceiving formalist. But to do them because God has appointed them, Jesus communicates Himself in them, and the Holy Spirit works by them; to perform them as a guilty, perishing sinner, relying upon God’s faithfulness, ardently expecting the fulfilment of the promise, and looking to God in Christ alone for salvation through Him; to persevere in them, believing your best performances to be exceeding sinful; and, therefore, looking more to the blood of Christ for pardon and acceptance, more to the Spirit for His quickening and renewing influence, and more to God for the powerful drawing of His efficacious and sovereign grace; thus to employ the means, thus to read, thus to pray, thus to meditate, thus to depart from evil, thus to turn to good, seems that which shall be blessed to us, in leading us to life eternal. If you keep the Cross, and the Cross alone, in view, “when you would turn to the right hand or the left, you shall hear a voice behind you say, This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isa. xxx.).
My dear fellow-mortal, whoever you are, how do you and I part? I will say, like Abraham’s servant, “The Lord hath so far prospered my journey,” as to lead me to you who now read this tract. “Now, deal truly and kindly with my Master,” and tell me what is your answer to Him. Jesus is my Master, and I glory in it; for He is a Master full of grace and truth; and I testify that His commandments are not grievous. I may soon, very soon, be laid in the dust, and worms shall devour this body; you also may be called thither before me, or shall certainly soon follow, and this world shall be to us as though it had never been; but “the Redeemer liveth, and shall in the latter day stand upon the earth,” as Judge. Once more, therefore, before we part, not to meet, perhaps, until that day; once more, in the name and presence of God, and in Christ’s stead, I lay before you my message, even this record, “God giveth you eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (I. John v.). The free, the full, the sincere gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus is at this moment held out to you whose eyes now rest upon these words; trifle not with it; put it not from you, I entreat of you; you have to answer for this very offer; your accepting of it will from henceforth make you eternally happy; your refusal may be the signal for the doors of mercy to close for ever! Hear me, oh! hear me, then, just as if you saw the gate of heaven moving on its portal about to be eternally closed, “Be reconciled to God!” Behold in the sorrow and death of His Son a perfect atonement for sin, and a pledge that He is reconciled to your salvation. Oh, why, then, will you not come to Him, guilty, polluted, humbled in the dust, and entreat for an interest in this atonement, that you may be reconciled to Him? Did you but know how sweet it is for a mourning, heavy-laden soul to rest itself in the finished work of Christ; and in assurance of hope to look forward to a peaceful, perhaps a triumphant, death, to a glorious resurrection, to an Eternity as full of bliss as an infinite God can make it to be; to look thus forward, and in the exercise of faith to say, “All, all is mine! for Christ is mine, and I am His!” If you could know the sweetness of this, even in a faint degree, readily would you say, “I will go with Him.”
But, sinner, if we part as we met; if you lay down this little messenger as you took it up, unbelieving, and having no desire to believe, then must I tell you what remains for you: “He that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark xvi.). It is Jesus Himself that said so, and these are among the last words He uttered on this earth; and remember that He “is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever”; and that even if “we believe not, He continues faithful, and cannot deny Himself” (II. Tim. ii.). Nay, it is not only a “shall be,” but at this very moment you are in a condemned state—”He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John iii.). This one act of unbelief is enough to sink you into everlasting misery. And wherefore? Because it is downright blasphemy. “He that believeth not God, hath made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son” (I. John v.). Is not that blasphemy? And yet you who receive not with the heart the message of salvation, are guilty of it. Think not that the great and glorious God, who has so infinitely condescended as to give you His own Son, is patiently to look on, and see Him despised of you, and rejected as a thing of nought. No; He said to Him in His humiliation, “I have both glorified Thee, and will glorify Thee” (John xii.). And He hath said to Him on His exaltation, “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Psal. cx.). And how destroyeth He His enemies? Hear Himself: “I will tread them in Mine anger, and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment. For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and the year of My redeemed is come” (Isaiah Ixiii.). But you are a Christian. Alas, only in name! And think you that a name, the mere name of Christian, will deceive the eyes of Him who readeth the universe at a glance? But whose name do you bear? the name of Christ. Then I say, “Beware.” That Name is dear to the Father above every name. Before it He causeth Heaven, earth, and hell to bow (Phil. ii.). That Name you take to yourself as a glittering spoil, and reject Him, to whom it belongs. But woe unto you if the Father in the day of His vengeance behold that spoil upon His sworn enemy! An ancient warrior, once standing over a fierce but fallen foe, had well-nigh spared him, until he espied glittering upon him the girdle of his beloved Pallas, whom that foe had slain; then flashed the kindling beam of mercy into wrath, and with the downcoming of his uplifted sword he exclaimed, “My Pallas sends thee this!” So, in a more holy, more exalted, but infinitely more awful sense, shall that spoil which you wear upon you, even the name of Christ, whilst in heart you deny Him, bring down upon you from the Father, a vengeance, compared with which the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah were indeed tolerable, where the voice of Jesus was never heard, and where His sorrows and sufferings were never slighted! Oh, embrace, therefore, and ever hold fast the faith of that Lord who is the life eternal, lest He be angry, when “His wrath is kindled,” yea, “but a little” and so “ye perish from the way!”
(To be continued).